A PRIZE-winning case study focusing on the plight of women detained in a concentration camp during the Holocaust was described as “exemplary” by competition judges.

Colchester County High School for Girls scooped the top award in this year’s Dora Love Prize.

The accolade was set up in 2012 in the name of Holocaust survivor Dora Love.

It asks secondary schoolchildren to develop projects which link the genocide to examples of intolerance and discrimination displayed today.

The Holocaust, carried out in Europe by the Nazis during the Second World War, saw the systematic extermination of some 11 million people due to their ethnicity, religion, beliefs or sexuality.

Colchester County High School students shaped their project around a study of the women-only concentration camp Ravensbrück.

The school’s presentation explored the treatment of the women in the camp and how those stories related to issues faced by contemporary women, such as domestic violence.

Their submission included a mannequin dress in the style of those worn by the women of Ravensbrück, but embroidered with headlines from current newspaper stories about female discrimination.

In the year ending March 2019, around 1.6 million women in England and Wales were subjected to domestic violence.

The students created a website and hosted community events focusing on their chosen subject.

They fought off competition from 15 other schools to clinch the prize.

Judges described their entry as “exemplary”.

Speaking after the event, Professor Rainer Schulze, who founded the prize in memory of Dora Love, said: “The enthusiasm, the creativity and the commitment shown in all projects were truly amazing and inspiring.

“In truth, all the projects were winners because they showed we all stand together with people who are discriminated against.”